Child Personality–Adjustment Associations at the Transition from Kindergarten to School: Evaluating the Vulnerability and the Scar Model

Maja Zupančič, Anja Podlesek and Tina Kavčič ()
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Maja Zupančič: University of Ljubljana
Anja Podlesek: University of Ljubljana
Tina Kavčič: University of Primorska

Child Indicators Research, 2018, vol. 11, issue 1, No 5, 97-116

Abstract: Abstract The study investigated longitudinal relations between teacher-perceived children’s personality traits and teacher aide-assessed children’s adjustment. Questionnaire data on 5-year-old kindergarteners’ (N = 240; 47 % boys) Extraversion, Neuroticism, Disagreeableness, Conscientiousness, Social Competence, Internalizing Problems, and Externalizing Problems were collected. One year later, the children’s schoolteachers and their aides completed identical assessments. Using a cross-lagged design, the results showed that the trait- and adjustment measures from age 5 to age 6 were moderately and modestly stable, respectively. Simultaneous testing of the vulnerability and the scar model provided support to the vulnerability model for Social Competence. The children’s Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and low Neuroticism predicted subsequent Social Competence, but not vice versa. Consistent with the vulnerability model, low Extraversion and low Conscientiousness also predicted later Internalizing Problems. Further results for problem behavior suggested bidirectional associations of Neuroticism and Disagreeableness with Internalizing and Externalizing Problems, respectively, supporting both the scar and the vulnerability model.

Keywords: Children; Personality traits; Adjustment; Vulnerability model; Scar model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1007/s12187-016-9423-x

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